An ongoing review of politics and culture

Obviously gangsta rap obviously has already been domesticated by the upper-bourgeoisie, becoming a tame sort of protest music for young well-off white kids who aren’t really protesting anything. But there’s distinction between this sort of domestication and what’s happened to jazz, which hasn’t just become safe – it’s become highbrow. And … I have a tough time imagining the same thing happening with Dr. Dre. (Moreover, if it does happen – if the fortysomething intellectuals of 2030 end up dragging their griping kids to hear the N.W.A. in the Park concert series – it will be a vastly more plausible indicator of cultural decline than the highbrowfication of Miles Davis.)

Well, I agree that it’s a stretch to suggest that in a quarter century my high-school classmates will be dragging their kids to N.W.A. in the Park, though if NPR ever sponsors a Big Booty Fest, I’ll be the first one to pick up a ticket. But there are two things to note here. The first is that while the most absurd and vulgar elements of rap (as seen in N.W.A.) will likely never be softened and intellectualized in the way of jazz, hip hop almost certainly will be, and indeed, already is. N.W.A. might not find its way onto the playlists of most future New Yorker readers, but more complicated, mature hip-hop — acts like El-P and M.I.A. — probably will. And if more mainstream variants like Kanye West and Outkast, who share roots with more hardcore acts, don’t make the 2040 equivalent of classic pop charts, well, I’ll eat my Blackberry.

More than that, it seems likely to me that music won’t evolve in quite the same way it has in the past. Gen X and Yers will probably cling to their generational anthems as in the past, but I’d guess that in many cases, there will be less softening of the edges. Instead, 45 years a few decades from now will, I suspect, listen to much the same music they do now — replete with the same vulgarities and aggression. For one thing, the habits of maturity, of changing and moderating one’s taste as one grows older, seem to be on the wane. For better and for worse, there’s no longer an idea that one puts away childish things. And for another, the presence of vulgarity, or at least what Ross would certainly define as such, is becoming less and less of an issue. Call it the pornografication of the public square; call it a proper, natural evolution of societal mores. The fact is, sex and violence that would’ve been considered extreme a few decades previous are now a rather bland, widely-accepted part of entertainment and culture both upper- (The Sopranos, Brotherhood, The Shield) and lower-class (Midnight Meat Train, etc.). So, sure, maybe N.W.A. won’t be kiddie stuff a few decades off. But if current trends toward increasing acceptance and apathy hold, material of roughly equivalent vulgarity (by today’s standards) will play a larger part in cultural discourse and distraction than ever.

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Does the Atlantic library need a copy of “Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop”?
http://www.amazon.com/Cant-Stop-Wont-History-Generation/dp/0312425791/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1208478203&sr=8-1

“…will likely never be softened and intellectualized in the way of jazz….”

Jazz even from the beginning was “intellectual” in the sense that it required a knowledge of music theory, the kind of strong musical technique that comes from years of practice, and genuine artistic sensibility. As the years passed it got even more intellectual as the theory and structures got more complex and at the same time was “intellectualized” in that intellectuals started writing about it. Rap has plenty of intellectuals writing about it, but it a less “intellectual” form of music in that it doesn’t require any musical theory or technique at all(not a bad thing, just different), although it definitely requires an artistic sensibility. Jazz has always been centered on the notes, rap on the combination of the beats and the story. It has a literary component. Jazz has no literary component at all.

I think that jazz will continue as a living and or repertory music becasue it lacks that literary content. 50 years from now, someone can play an ellington piece the way they can play something by bach. It can exist comfortable without it’s contemporary social and literary (which is non-existant) components. Rap would have way more baggage to explain to the audience 50 years from now.

Sure, to an extent, but I suspect that the more musically complex variants — whether you’re talking Kanye, Timbaland, or Diplo — will survive, and will certainly have a huge influence on next gen music (already are, really). And the literary tradition you write about may make some current works less accessible, but that tradition will keep evolving; there will, for a long time, be a current variant of it.

I’m not saying rap won’t survive. Almost all music survives, especially now when we have a million ways to record and preserve it. But I don’t think all music makes it into the mainstream repetoir, as jazz may or may not be. All I was saying was that jazz was more likely to be part of the mainstream repetoir than rap.

I’m not sure if that was even your original point or not. I think I was off on a tangent.

And … I have a tough time imagining [it becoming high brow] happening with Dr. Dre.

I love how Douthat can dress up a tautology as a “prediction.” Aiyo, dat pundit shit is eazy! Eazy, get it?

Here, let me try my hand at this lucrative, glorious pundit-craft:

I hereby predict that Douthat will, for the millionth time since his birth, FAIL to swing from my nut-sack.

Go ‘head, Ross—prove me wrong.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UMlPVpXtkJY

Also, Douthat might be interested in reading something—anything, goddammit—by Michael Eric Dyson. Homeboy can try this and subsequently hit me off with 1000 word theme on the relationship of alienation, ennui, and despair in early ’90s South Central.

For one thing, the habits of maturity, of changing and moderating one’s taste as one grows older, seem to be on the wane. For better and for worse, there’s no longer an idea that one puts away childish things.

Peter: I would suggest that we did not recognize the childish things our grandfathers held on to as having been childish things, and so we are inclined to exaggerate the waning we perceive.

In Portland, Oregon, there is a University Club. Very dignified, very exclusive. Mature and tasteful. But it was founded, as were so many of its brethren of the time, as a place for college graduates to re-live their fraternity days — to gather in comfort, drink, razz each other, and sing the old college songs in four-part harmony.

Had we been their contemporaries, perhaps you or I would have judged the spectacle as being a futile clinging to lost youth; a disappointing step down from the stern moral seriousness of our Victorian grandfathers.